Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers Christina Romer and Congressional Oversight Panel Chair Elizabeth Warren speak at the Women in Finance Symposium, March 29, 2010.
Named the “Just Society,” plan, it sounds like something right out of the Eastern Bloc circa the 1960s. The plan, created by AOC and endorsed heartily by Democrat presidential primary candidate Elizabeth Warren, is just as you would expect it to be, a massive wealth transfer from people who have worked hard to make their fortunes to those who have not. Here’s how Justin Haskins describes the plan at Fox News:
That’s right, folks, you can forget about terrorism, trade wars, America’s $22 trillion debt, skyrocketing health insurance costs and every other significant problem facing the country. Apparently, the real threat to Americans’ health and welfare is that Amazon head Jeff Bezos has too many billions of dollars in investments and Bill Gates – the world’s most generous philanthropist – owns too many houses.
The Just Society plan would solve America’s alleged wealth gap “problem” by – surprise – dramatically expanding the power of the federal government and its welfare programs and running up tens of trillions of dollars in new debt in the process.
There aren’t enough rich people to pay for AOC’s grandiose plans, even if government confiscated all their money and left them penniless and homeless. Like a credit card bill that keeps growing, at some point Ocasio-Cortez’s trillions of dollars in massive new spending would have to be paid for – meaning gigantic tax increases for all of us, our children, grandchildren and beyond.
The most important part of the Just Society proposal is that it would substantially expand the meaning of “poverty” so that potentially tens of millions of additional Americans would be considered legally impoverished and made newly eligible for numerous welfare programs. These include the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, more commonly referred to as food stamps.
You know the old saying that there’s no such thing as a free lunch? Comrade AOC would hand out free breakfasts, lunches and dinners, among many other free benefits. Perhaps the Tooth Fairy, little elves living in trees, or space aliens landing in Area 51 would foot the bill.
Ocasio-Cortez’s Recognizing Poverty Act would direct “the Department of Health and Human Services, in collaboration with the Bureau of Census and Bureau of Labor Statistics, to adjust the federal poverty line to account for geographic cost variation, costs related to health insurance, work expenses for the family, child care needs, and new necessities, like internet access.”
As Matt Weidinger of the American Enterprise Institute notes, a 2018 report found that if the standard used in Ocasio-Cortez’s legislation were applied to the residents of New York City, roughly 40 percent of all households would be considered impoverished, compared to only 14 percent under the current standards.
Altering the poverty line in accordance with Comrade AOC’s legislation would also push tens of millions of people onto the Children’s Health Insurance Program and Medicaid, among other programs.
In some cases, people would effectively have no choice but to be forced onto the government dole. For example, many of the families now receiving health insurance subsidies to purchase insurance plans in ObamaCare exchanges would suddenly become eligible for Medicaid and would no longer be able to have access to those subsidies. This would require them to choose between enrolling in Medicaid or paying the much higher, non-subsidy ObamaCare price for private insurance.
Are you ready for the government to tell you you’re so poor they need to control your life?
Read more from Haskins here.
